“I think it’s important to understand that state abortion bans and restrictions will increase people’s need to travel out of state to get an abortion,” Social Work Professor Gretchen E. Ely writes. “This will prompt more people seeking help from abortion funds, which themselves are facing new kinds of legal and financial pressures.”
Gretchen E. Ely
Gretchen E. Ely is a professor and Director of the PhD Program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, College of Social Work, and a faculty affiliate in the UTK Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program. Professor Ely was previously on the faculty in the School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo, where she served as a professor and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Her scholarly interests include: contraception and abortion, access to reproductive health and preventive cancer care for vulnerable populations, trauma-informed reproductive healthcare, partner violence, and rural and Appalachian populations. She is widely published in peer-reviewed social work and interdisciplinary health journals, and her macro social work teaching experience, primarily at the graduate level, includes course delivery in online, hybrid, and face-to-face modalities. Dr. Ely's scholarship and expertise has been featured in popular media, including by PBS Frontline and USA Today, and externally supported by scientific foundations and community based partners, including the Society for Family Planning (SFP). She is also a full fellow in the Society of Family Planning and the National Academies of Practice.
